Dangers of Subjectivity....

The beginning of the year has been surprisingly tiring but now I have time for a short break before six concerts in Indianapolis and Houston. In the previous concert with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra Vadim Gluzman gave a memorable performance of "Offertorium", the Violin concerto by Sofia Gubaidulina. She has the most exceptional ability of making the musicians and the audience to forget the actual process of composing. Gubaidulina`s superb technical skills stay humbly in the background when she brilliantly uses them in expressing something extremely human and valuable. I think J.S. Bach had the same ability.

Meeting Vadim Gluzman always reminds me of a strange episode in Portland, Oregon in December 2005. Vadim played the Mendelssohn Concerto in an Oregon Symphony program which also included the Sibelius 5th Symphony. Four years ago my concept of that symphony and Sibelius in general was much different than now. I was experimenting with sound, mainly by using slow tempi and tried to give the harmonies as much time as possible. This led very often to exceptionally broad slow movements. I´m sure some of the harmonies and interesting dissonances which are usually lost were audible in these otherwise perverse readings but I admit that that the lack of momentum occasionally destroyed the structural functions of harmony.

During the post concert CD signing a man from the audience came to me and started to yell something incomprehensible. The situation became so threatening that Charles Calmer, the Artistic Administrator of the Oregon Symphony and a couple of big guys from the orchestra threw the distracted citizen out. Next day when I was leaving for the second concert from my hotel there was a polite policeman waiting for me in the lobby. "Maestro, I´ll escort you to the hall". "What!?!? Surely that´s not necessary". "Yes it is", he says. Later, outside my dressing room I found another police, a detective with a smart looking dog. The hound searched the room and I was let in. Before I had chance to ask what on earth they were doing the management hurried in and I was told that the man from the other night had been so upset by my slow tempi, "so much slower than those by Osmo Vänskä" that the promoter was afraid he might get violent! Subjectivity can be dangerous.

For the rest of my stay in Portland I had this detective by my side where ever I went. In the beginning of each concert he escorted me from the dressing room to the stage and I could see him lurking behind the wings. Vadim Gluzman was the only one who remained calm and was obviously enjoying this bizarre situation. "There´s no need to worry, Hannu", he said. "i´ve got the commando training of the Israeli Army". In the worst possible case my slow tempos could have caused a serious international conflict.

In my previous blog entry I wrote about Jascha Horenstein and about the unique way he managed to combine the graphic realisation of the score with the subjective musical ideas. One of the basic dilemmas in a musical performance is how to do this without sounding smug. On the other hand the members of the public should remember that the recording he or she has at home is not the unquestionable truth. And finally, a professional critic must always have a look at the music before writing anything about the performance. Anyone who bothers to open the score can see that it certainly contains some strict information but at the same time allows lots of freedom and creativity.